The present invention relates to a self-service terminal (SST).
SSTs are public access devices that are suitable for allowing a user to conduct a transaction or to access information in an unassisted manner and/or in an unattended environment. An SST deployer may decide to provide human assistance and/or supervision for users of the SST; however, SSTs are typically designed so that such assistance and/or supervision is not essential. This means that SSTs generally need to be fault tolerant, and to have effective fault handling processes to retain the SST in service when a fault does occur.
Common examples of SSTs include automated teller machines (ATMs), information kiosks, financial services centers, bill payment kiosks, lottery kiosks, postal services machines, check-in and check-out terminals such as those used in the hotel, car rental, and airline industries, retail self-checkout terminals, vending machines, and the like.
A particularly important example of an SST is an ATM. ATMs typically include a plurality of devices that perform functions to enable transactions to be executed. To ensure that an ATM remains in service, it is important to be able to detect any faults in an ATM quickly. It is also important to be able to detect faults from a remote location because ATMs operate in an unassisted environment.
An ATM typically includes management software to monitor the state of health of devices within the ATM. State of the art management software for computing devices typically uses IP networks to provide automated notification of device status information; however, many ATM networks are based on legacy network technologies, such as SNA networks, which do not support this functionality. In addition, some ATM networks use host-driven software to control the operation of the ATMs, rather than peer-to-peer software.